Pell, John

, an eminent English mathematician, descended from an ancient family in Lincolnshire, was bora
at Southwyke in Sussex, March t, 1610; and educated in
grammar-learning at the free-school, then newly founded,
| at Steyning in that county. At thirteen, he was sent to
Trinity college in Cambridge, where he pursued his studies with unusual diligence, but although capable of undergoing any trials, and one of the best classical scholars
of his age, he never offered himself a candidate at the
election of scholars or fellows of this college. After taking
the degree of B. A. in 1628, he drew up the “Description and Use of the Quadrant, written for the use of a
friend, in two books;” the original ms. of which is still
extant among his papers in the Royal Society; and the
same year he held a correspondence with Mr. Henry
Briggs on logarithms. In 1630 he wrote “Modus supputatidi Ephemerides Astronomicas (quantum ad motum solis attinet) paradigmate ad an. 1630 accommodate;” and “A
Key to unlock the Meaning of Johannes Trithemius, in his
Discourse of Ste^anography;” which key Pell the same
year imparted to Mr. Samuel Hartlib and Mr. Jacob Homedae. The same year, he took the degree of master of
arts at Cambridge, and the year following was incorporated
in the university of Oxford. In June he wrote “A Letter to
Mr. Edward Win gate on Logarithms;” and, Oct. 5, 1631,
“Commentationes in Cosmographiam Alstedii.” July 3,
1632', he married Ithamaria, second daughter of IVtr. Henry
Reginolles of London, by whom he had four sons and four
daughters. In 1633 he finished his “Astronomical History
of Observations of heavenly Motions and Appearances;”
and his “Eclipticus Prognostica or Foreknower of the
Eclipses; teaching how, by calculation, to foreknow and
foretell all sorts of Eclipses of the heavenly lights.” In
1634, he translated “The everlasting Tables of Heavenly
Motions, grounded upon the observations of all times,
and agreeing with them all, by Philip Lansberg, of Ghent
in Flanders” and the same year he committed to writing,
“The Manner of deducing his Astronomical Tables out of
the Tables and axioms of Philip Lansberg.” In March1635, he wrote “A Letter of Remarks on Gellibrand’s
Mathematical Discourse on the Variation of the Magnetic
Needle; and, June following, another on the same subject. Such were the employments of the first six years of
Mr. Pell’s public life, during which mathematics entirely
engrossed his attention. Conceiving this science of the
utmost importance, he drew up a scheme for a mathematical school on an extensive scale of utility and emulation*,
Which was much approved by Des Cartes^ but so censured
| by Mersenne in France, that our author was obliged to
write in its defence. The controversy may be seen in
Hooke’s Philosophical Collections, and with Pell’s” Idea
of the Mathematics."

Mr. Pell’s eminence, however, in mathematical knowledge, was now so great, that he was thought worthy of a
professor’s chair in that science; and, i.pon the vacancy
of one at Amsterdam in 1639, sir William Bos -ell, the
English resident with the States-general, used his interest,
that he might succeed in that professorship; which was not
filled up till above four years after, 1643, when Pell was
chosen to it. The year following he published, in two
pages 4to, “A Refutation of Longomontamis’s Discourse,
De vera circuli mensura,” printed at Amsterdam in 1644.
In June 1646, he was invited by the prince of Orange to
be professor of philosophy and mathematics at Breda, in
the college newly founded there by his highness, with the
offer of a salary of 1000 guilders a year. This he accepted, but upon his removal to Breda, he found that he
was rt quired to teach mathematics only. His “Idea Matheseos,” which he had addressed to Mr. Hartlib, who in
1639 had sent it to Des Cartes and Mersenne, was printed
1650 at London, 12mo, in English, with the title of “An
Idea of Mathematics,” at the end of Mr. John Dury’s
“Reformed Library-keeper.” On the death of the prince
of Orange, in 1650, and the subsequent war between the
English and Dutch, he left Breda, and returned to Eng
land, in 1652; and, in 1654, was sent by Cromwell as his
agent to the protestant cantons in Switzerland, his instructions being dated March 30th of that year. His first
speech in Latin to the deputies of Zurich was on the 13th
of June; and he continued in that city during most of his
employment in Switzerland, in which he had afterwards
the title of resident. Being recalled by Cromwell, he took
his leave of the cantons in a Latin speech at Zuricu, the
23d of June, 1658; but returned to England so short a
time before the usurper’s death, that he had no opportunity of an audience from him. Why Cromwell employed
him does not appear, but it is thought that during his residence abroad, he contributed to the interests of CharlesJi. and the church of England; and it is certain that, after
the restoration, he entered into holy orders, although at
an unusually advanced period of life. He was ordained
deacon March 31, 1661, and priest in June following, by
| Sanderson, bishop of Lincoln; and, on the 16th of that
month, instituted to the rectory of Fobbing in Essex, given
him by the king. On Dec. the 5th following, he brought
into the upper house of convocation the calendar reformed
by him, assisted by Sancroft, afterwards abp. of Canterbury. In 1663, he was presented by Sheldon, bishop of
London, to the rectory of Laingdon in Essex; and, upon
the promotion of that bishop to the see of Canterbury in
the next month, became one of his grace’s domestic chaplains. He was then doctor of divinity, and expected, as
Wood tells us, “to be made a dean; but being not a person of activity, as others who mind not learning are, could
never rise higher than a rector.” The truth is, adds
Wood, “he was a helpless man as to worldly affairs; and
his tenants and relations dealt so unkindly by him, that
they defrauded him of the profits of his rectory, and kept
him so indigent, that he was in want of necessaries, even
ink and paper, to his dying day.” He was for some time
confined to the King’s-bench prison for debt; but, in
March 1682, was invited by Dr. Whistler to live in the
college of physicians. Here he continued till June following, when he was obliged, by his ill state of health, to
remove to the house of a grandchild of his in St. Margaret’s
church-yard, Westminster. From this too he was again
removed, for we find that he died at the house (in Dyot street) of Mr. Cothorne, reader of the church of St. Giles’s
in the Fields, Dec. the 12th, 1685, and was intecred by
the charity of Busby, master of Westminster school, and
Sharp, rector of, St. Giles’s, in the rector’s vault under
that church. Besides what have been mentioned, Dr. Pell
was the author of, 1. “An Exercitation concerning Easter,”
1644, in 4to. 2. “A Table of 10,000 square numbers,”
&c. 1672, folio. 3. An Inaugural Oration at his entering
upon the Professorship at Breda. 4. He made great
alterations and additions to “Rhonius’s Algebra,” printed
at London1668, 4to, under the title of “An Introduction to Algebra; translated out of the High Dutch into
English by Thomas Branker, much altered and augmented
by D. P. (Dr. Pell).” Also a Table of odd numbers, less
than 100,000, shewing those that are incomposite, &c.
supputated by the same Thomas Branker. 5. His Controversy with Longomontanus concerning the Quadrature of
the Circle, Amsterdam, 1646, 4to. He likewise wrote a
Demonstration of the 2d and 10th books of Euclid; which
| piece was in ms. in the library of lord Brereton in
Cheshire: as also’Arrhimedes’s Arenarins, and the greatest part of Diophantus’s six books of Arithmetic; of which
author he was preparing, Aug. 1644, a new edition, with
2 corrected translation, and new illustrations. He designed
likewise to publish an edition of Apollonius, but laid it
aside, in May, 1645, at the desire of Golius, who was engaged in an edition of that author from an Arabic manuscript given him at Aleppo 18 years before. This appears
from the letters of Dr. Pell to sir CharlesCavendish, in
the Royal Society.

Some of his manuscripts he left at Brereton in Cheshire",
where he resided some years, being the seat of William
lord Brereton, who had been his pupil at Breda. A great
many others came into the hands of Dr. Busby; which Mr.
Hook was desired to use his endeavours to obtain for the
society. But they continued buried under dust, and mixed
with the papers and pamphlets of Dr. Busby, in four large
boxes, till 1755; when Dr. Birch, secretary to the Royal
Society, procured them for that body, from the trustees of
Dfr. Busby. The collection contains not only Pell’s mathematical papers, letters to him, and copies of those from*
him, &c. but also several manuscripts of Walter Warner,
the mathematician and philosopher, who lived in the reignS
of James the First and Charles the First.

Dr. Pell invented the method of ranging the several
steps of an algebraical calculus, in a proper order, in so
many distinct lines, with the number affixed to each step,
and a short description of the operation or process in the
line. He also invented some mathematical characters. 1

This text has been generated using commercial OCR software,
and there are still many problems; it is slowly getting better
over time.
The text was scanned and OCRd several times, and
a majority version of each line of text was chosen.
Please don't reuse the content
(e.g. do not post to wikipedia)
without asking liam
at holoweb dot net first (mention the colour of your socks in the mail),
because I am still working on fixing errors.
Thanks!